The Inbetween Homestead is a blog about the adventures of an suburban "homesteader" trying to live more simply and more self sufficient in these trying times. Follow along as I show my triumphs and disappointments, experiments and tips and tricks to getting the most from your suburban environment as frugally as possible.

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

So.Very.Tired

This post is ultimately about the pallet board greens garden I made today. Other things should be mentioned too.One of the reasons I haven't been posting is that I had to have another tooth removed because it cracked. For a week there was a lot of discomfort and now, with it being pulled, there is a LOT of discomfort. More than I expected really, and I have had one other removed (other than my wisdom teeth, really wishing I had them right about now).The other, more obvious reason is that I live 10 minutes from the Boston craziness. The day we stayed in was the nicest of the year so far, and no gardening. It was a small discomfort all in all, but when you can't do something it ends up being the only thing that you want to do. It turned out well though. I was going to hedge my bets and get the tomatoes, cukes and squash in, but now they are saying that there will be a hard frost in Lexington which is about 40 minutes from me driving (the roads are a pain that way). It is unlikely we will have a hard frost here, but there will be frost and the tommy toes do not like frost.In case you are wondering, "tommy toes" is what Ramona the Brave called tomatoes, and I loved those books as a kid.So today, while exhausted, emotionally wrung out and mostly wanting to crawl in a nice deep hole, I pulled myself up and went to work on the pallet garden after getting a new staple gun because my old one was mishandled by somebody (husband.. ahem..). It is probably the best thing I learned growing up, being able to just do things when they absolutely have to be done. I am usually a wreck after, but things get accomplished.Here is my attempt at the pallet garden. I did make mistakes. This is due to lack of foresight and I think I get a bit of a break for reigning insanity, at least temporarily.I found the idea on the internet, pinterest I think, a while ago and thought that it was a terrific idea. Pallets are easy to find, free and light. The way it explained to do it though took way too much time for me. I didn't have time to carefully stuff soil in while it lay on the ground and wait for the root systems to take hold before lifting it up. Plus, greens grow too fast and have too shallow of roots for this to work. This is where I tried to get fancy.

Forgot the full before picture

Okay, I didn't take a shot before I started, but here it is at the very beginning. The slats needed a bottom to hold the dirt, so I took some garden cloth that I already had and cut it in to strips to staple in place.

Strip of garden cloth

Yes, I can't cut a straight line to save my life. Just make sure you have enough, you can always trim it later.

New Stapler

I just took this shot because I want to show off my new low end stapler. I love these things, there is so much you can do with them. Anyway, I stapled one side to the back, and then attempted to make the front not so obvious. This was a bit tricky because pallets are not uniform, not even in itself.

Wish this was the front

Supposed to be the back..

The right side picture was intended to be the back, because I was sloppier to give the fabric a little more support, but then I noticed that there were a couple of slats that did not have a match on the other side. This is perfect for the taller plants, but since I didn't notice it, that side became the front. The picture on the left is how I planned it to work out. Next time, I am doing to remove the middle slat on one side. I will lose one trough for planted, but there will be far more head room and more sun will get through. This was an experiment after all.

After filling and planting

On the top I am trying to grow some rainbow chard, next down is leaf lettuce, further down is small leaf spinach and then a lettuce "tape" that I wanted to try. The seeds are so tiny that I do not like to waste them. I realize that the seedlings that are culled can be eaten, but with such a small space that will not be enough for all three of us.

Staking the peas

If you remember from a past post, we had a lot of saplings and branches that were pretty straight, so I took a minute to arrange some in the pea planter for the snow peas to grow up on.

My rhubarb!

I took a shot of this because I am astounded that my two rhubarb plants are completely thriving. I didn't really expect much, I have never dug up, separated and planted anything like rhubarb before, unless the tiger lilies count, but I remember those rhizomes to be quite different.

Another note on the marathon bombings: my thoughts are with the families who lost loved ones in the blast and the young man who was shot down in his car. All of their lives were precious and they didn't not deserved to have that life snuffed like that at another person's hand.

Krystle Campbell 29 years old

Lu Lingzi young graduate student

Martin Richard 8 years old

Sean Collier age 26

Then there are the men, women and children who were hurt, maimed and psychologically damaged forever. We also can not forget those brave people, both government workers and civilians who went back in to save people. One man lost both legs and yet, when he woke in the hospital was able to tell the police who he saw dropping the backpack that may have held the bomb. They are all deserving of our thoughts and if you are inclined, prayers.

Thank you to the majority of Americans who showed their love for fellow citizens and for all the fine officers, soldiers fire fires and medical personnel for your fine work and bravery under an extremely trying situation. I rest easier knowing that there are people like all of you there to help and I hope, should I ever be needed, to be able to help in the same way.

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